Ruud isn't wrong, it was frustrating to watch. 

 

13 hours ago, TheBluesBrother said:

 

 

LOL. City have a squad that cost well north of £600 million. Nobody has ever had a squad like that in English football and that's why they are so far ahead in the Premiership. Give Guardiola Stoke or Huddersfield to manage and he would do sweet FA.

But he pulls get them playing some decent attacking football.

Conte’s tactics and team setup is abysmally over defensive.

I don't buy that the players weren't trying. It looked to me like they'd stuck to the manager's plan but lost faith in the tactics and were hoping for Conte to change things.
Also, we looked mentally knackered from defending all game. No matter that we went into the game fresher, we were chasing shadows most of the game.

This 1000% the players were carrying out a suicidal plan and basically lost all faith in the plan, I was one of Conte biggest supporter's but this is up their in the top 3 of worst performances I have ever seen from Chelsea worst than anything under Jose last season which says something.

Jurgen Klopp at showed everybody how beat Guardiala and Man City with a good football play attack and no defense, but no Conte doesn't want understand... 

I still am pretty pissed about yesterday. I was pacing the living room, stomping my feet at times and felt like throwing something. It is bloody frustrating as a fan watching it when you know you can't do anything. I thought it would be difficult to come away with something, but we could have done something if changes were made and we were more positive going into the game. 
 

Felt that same it was probably my most frustrating game in recent times it was soul sapping

It's not so much that we lost that is the frustration but more that every player to a man played as if they couldn't give a sh*t about whether they lost or not. 

We're not getting Champions League football after that result but maybe, just maybe if we'd ground out a win yesterday we'd have been with a fighting chance to finish in the top four. 

The complete lack of desire and commitment shown by everyone was embarrassing. The amount of times we played the ball backwards in the rare moments we had it was painful and then we would just resort to mindlessly punting the ball up field. 

I get that City are by far and away the best team in the league this season and they're going to be worthy champions but as a Chelsea fan I'm looking at us and thinking we've got an expensively assembled squad of very well paid players and they could barely muster two consecutive passes. 

What exactly was the plan yesterday? Because for the life of me I couldn't figure it out... Yes soak up pressure and keep it compact when City have the ball but surely when you turnover possession you've got to break quickly, be direct, hit them with speed but we'd get the ball back, pass meekly across the defence, get pegged back and hoof it away. 

Then we concede in the first minute of the second half so I'm thinking, okay Plan B.... But it's not until gone the 80th minute we make any changes. 

I'm just befuddled at what I watched, it was a train-wreck of a performance and absolutely everyone involved should hang their heads in shame. 

As soon as I saw Hazard was our false 9 again all hope was lost for me. 
It worked surprisingly well against Barca, but a lot of that was down to them not pressuring us much, as we knew City would.

The tactic comes down to us hoofing long balls op to Hazard who doesn't get a sniff all game. The tactic has been sh*t all season and it will remain sh*t all season.
If Conte wants to redeem himself he needs to find something different to help us finish the season strong. Top 4 is gone for me, but a few nice performances to finish the season off would be nice.

18 minutes ago, CFCholland said:

As soon as I saw Hazard was our false 9 again all hope was lost for me. 
It worked surprisingly well against Barca, but a lot of that was down to them not pressuring us much, as we knew City would.

The tactic comes down to us hoofing long balls op to Hazard who doesn't get a sniff all game. The tactic has been sh*t all season and it will remain sh*t all season.
If Conte wants to redeem himself he needs to find something different to help us finish the season strong. Top 4 is gone for me, but a few nice performances to finish the season off would be nice.

Yep, me too.

I've been a massive fan of Conte and still back him but you have to question the thinking behind nullifying your biggest threat. Any team would want Hazard in their line-up but what is honestly the point in playing him where we did yesterday and then playing in a way where he never had a hope in hell of getting involved and causing a threat. We would have been better off having him on the bench and starting with Giroud and throwing Hazard on second half. Can't believe we just waved the white flags - would honestly have preferred to have got battered 5-2 and at least made a game of it.

 

Edited March 5, 20188 yr by Nibs

West Brom would have done a better job than us yesterday. Sit back for 90 minutes and lose, or go for it and lose 5-0. No difference, still a L. f**k the formation, tactics bollucks, those players yesterday at times couldn't even pass a f**king ball. Ideal game to go out and give it some, but what do we, f**k all, again. Chin up as they say and onto the next. 

 

Edited March 5, 20188 yr by Famous CFC

I feel a bit of sympathy for Conte - damned if he does go for it and we get whipped, damned if he doesn't. If we got a point yesterday there would be absolutely no drama. None. Neville and Carjacker would be saying something typical and fickle like "this is a point that Chelsea vitally needed to stay in touch with the top 4, and Conte got his tactics right, although it wasnt pretty"

I don't think Conte is trying to sabotage his job, but in his mind he mustn't have the confidence in Giroud and Morata. 

Its clear that he is stroppy and not happy with the transfer business, and he is stubbornly sticking to his decisions. 

We've seen this movie, and how it ends, many times. 

Yesterday’s approach, whatever the reasons was unforgiveable, and the clearest sorry indication yet of a team and manager that has now completely lost its way.

You couldn't even call it a performance, because it wasn't. There was no point in even turning up. If Conte wanted to conserve energy, why not play the reserves?

I'm not sure what was worse - the complete lack of effort, or Conte trying to justify it, only to then brand everyone else as 'stupid'. Well, there's only one person that's stupid, Antonio, and I think every Chelsea fan has now worked out who that is.

I was a big fan of his before yesterday, as I am one of the few who believe he hasn't been supported properly by the board since winning the title. Our transfer business has been horrific. That said, there are no excuses for what the team did (or didn't do) yesterday and it was an idiot move. This is all presuming of course, that the players haven't 'downed tools' again, and were carrying out his instructions. All the blame now quite clearly rests with one person.

We played well against Barca, but let's be honest, we scraped a draw. Dire against Utd. Even more dire against City, and now we're about to crash and burn in the second leg at the Nou Camp, no doubt trying to play the same way. Four big games, and as I expect, not one win.

Yes, last season may have been a fluke, and City's squad/financial muscle is far superior to ours right now (personally, I don't buy the opinion that we are 'not that far behind / could go toe-to-toe') but there are ways to manage the recent few games, and Conte has failed embarrassingly. Players being played out of position, baffling tactics, bizarre decisions to leave players out - he's sounded his own death knell.

I am in a state of shock. I can't believe what I watched yesterday. We are abysmal. We looked like a championship side. 

This is shocking. The last few seconds with Fabregas stroking his beard and staring at the ball, I have never seen any footballer in my life ever do that. Ever. He just stood there stroking his beard. Are you f**king serious? I never want to see this guy's face ever again.

8 minutes ago, zes said:

This is shocking. The last few seconds with Fabregas stroking his beard and staring at the ball, I have never seen any footballer in my life ever do that. Ever. He just stood there stroking his beard. Are you f**king serious? I never want to see this guy's face ever again.

I'm guessing you've never seen Jonjo Shelvey play?

11 minutes ago, zes said:

This is shocking. The last few seconds with Fabregas stroking his beard and staring at the ball, I have never seen any footballer in my life ever do that. Ever. He just stood there stroking his beard. Are you f**king serious? I never want to see this guy's face ever again.

I have watched this video so many times because I can't quite believe what I'm seeing. I missed the game yesterday and listened to it on radio but never did I imagine the this lack of effort and total disrespect to fans. 

If I had this work ethic theres no way I'd have a job, let alone the audacity to do it in plan sight. 

Very few of us expected to get anything from this game and were just hoping for a performance, seems like conte and the boys had other plans. 

We seem to be struggling to get rid of the park the bus tactic. We have been doing it for over a decade. I think it’s time we moved on, and start hiring attack minded managers from now to on.

you know what i would have liked to have seen? a formation change. something different. hardly anybody gave us a chance anyway, from our own fans to the media and it was a game which was going to be difficult to get anything from anyway. why not switch it up? go with 4 at the back, bring in barkley or chalobah into midfield, go with morata and giroud up top, maybe even giroud with hazard behind. something. you are being paid millions to coach and come up with a tactical plan, yet you're not coming up with anything new or hasn't been done before. where is the tactical nous that conte is known for? where is it?! was it all a load of crap and he got lucky last season? 

Hilariously enough that was actually the fourth-best result (or equal second if we don't count goals scored) anyone has achieved at the Etihad in the league so far this season...

48 minutes ago, zes said:

This is shocking. The last few seconds with Fabregas stroking his beard and staring at the ball, I have never seen any footballer in my life ever do that. Ever. He just stood there stroking his beard. Are you f**king serious? I never want to see this guy's face ever again.

fabregas may be lazy, but its obvious in that small phase the city guys were just dicking about, and passing it back and forth without any intent, other than maybe to get their passing stats up...

Ironically thought we played better yesterday than last season when we won 3-1. You can blame our tactics but that's how we setup and City failed to make a game of it, they were boring as f**k. If it wasn't for another Christensen mistake and better forward passes from Fabregas it may have been a different outcome.

SACK HIM   he deserves to go  

1 hour ago, zes said:

This is shocking. The last few seconds with Fabregas stroking his beard and staring at the ball, I have never seen any footballer in my life ever do that. Ever. He just stood there stroking his beard. Are you f**king serious? I never want to see this guy's face ever again.

This looks to me as they were trying to pull Cesc out of that deep line, clearly their instructions were to hold position you can see the straight line of midfielders. I'm no body language expert but him touching his face is a sign of discomfort/embarrassment of playing like this.

In the first few seconds you see him running to meet Silva but it comes clear that he can't get the ball anyway without committing in a 1 v 2, he'll be easily bypassed. It's hard to be enthusiastic when you are conducting a pointless exercise, I don't blame the players, yesterday was all the fault of the manager's tactics, if they went toe to toe with City I guarantee they wouldn't be playing like this.

3 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

I'm no body language expert but him touching his face is a sign of discomfort/embarrassment of playing like this.

Not sure it was even that tbh, seemed to me Cesc was just saying you play your boring tika taka I'll just stand here stroking my beard lol

Edited March 5, 20188 yr by the special one

5 hours ago, old git said:

The plan stuttered because, with a midfield duo of Fabregas and Drinkwater up against Silva and De Bruyne, it was inevitable that we weren't going to go toe to toe. Why? Because Fabregas isn't, by a million miles, N'Golo Kante. With Kante's drive, energy and anticipation in the tackle, it could have been so different as he would have put them under pressure, forced mistakes and set up the counter. Alas, he was lying on his back in the team coach. Very disappointed in Conte's inactivity when we went 1-0 down. Giving Giroud only 20 odd minutes to test their back line was bad enough but, Morata's last minute entrance was ridiculous.

Giroud come on in the 78min, not good enough.

54 minutes ago, the special one said:

Ironically thought we played better yesterday than last season when we won 3-1. You can blame our tactics but that's how we setup and City failed to make a game of it, they were boring as f**k. If it wasn't for another Christensen mistake and better forward passes from Fabregas it may have been a different outcome.

Oh come on, there's no what ifs from that game, we was sh*t and that's it. City never really went up the gears and probably wouldn't unless needed as they played on Thursday.